You’ve not lost 40% of the value of your house for a quick sale

Many firms will offer to sell your house quickly – but some sellers are losing up to 53pc of their property value. Anne Baker lost £40,000 on the sale of her inherited home.

Err, no, she’s not lost 40% on the value of that home. She’s unloaded something for the price she can get in a market. That’s not losing value at all. that’s just what the market was prepared to pay to someone who wanted the cash quickly:

Anne Baker had been trying to sell an inherited property in Yorkshire for more than a year when she and her husband, Colin, turned to a firm that specialised in quick sales. The company, Gateway Homes, valued the property at £100,000 and offered to sell it within two weeks for a sale price to the couple of £75,000.

“We thought that was fair, as they took the legal costs and the hassle of selling off our hands,” says Mrs Baker, 57. But 10 weeks later the property had still not been sold, and the price was lowered to £60,000.

“The house was costing us in insurance and council tax bills, so we reluctantly accepted their offer and we completed within two days,” says Mrs Baker.

If a house hasn’t sold for over a year there’s a certain possibility that it was overpriced really. Then include in the council tax, insurance and so on that they’ve not had to pay for another year, or more, the interest they’ll get by having the cash now not later and so on. Sure, it’s a significant discount to what they thought they were going to get. But the idea that they’ve lost 40% of that house value is ridiculous.

Things you’re prepared to wait a bit to find a buyer for do indeed go for different prices than things you want to get shot of in two days. As anyone who has ever been to a business fire sale knows. And don’t forget, two days means there was a cash buyer for that house: no mortgage surveys could be completed in that short a period of time.